Plymouth brutality case effectively ended two police careers

Shawn Coughlin will pay a steep price for assaulting a handcuffed prisoner, but the former Plymouth police sergeant is not the only officer to lose his career over the November 2011 attack.

Rich Harbert rharbert@wickedlocal.com @richharbertOCM

BOSTON – Shawn Coughlin will pay a steep price for assaulting a handcuffed prisoner, but the former Plymouth police sergeant is not the only officer to lose his career over the November 2011 attack.

Jonathan Yule’s brief experience as a Plymouth police officer is a cautionary example of how life’s path can change in seconds.

Yule served two combats tours of Iraq with the U.S. Marine Corps and returned to his hometown looking for a career in law enforcement.

He worked briefly for the Plymouth County Sheriff’s Department before landing a seasonal job as a police officer on Cape Cod.

Plymouth police hired him full-time in late 2010 and sent him to the police academy. After 25 weeks of training, he hit the streets in April 2011.

It was a rough introduction.

In his first month on the job, Yule responded to a domestic disturbance in Manomet and witnessed a man commit suicide by running a circular saw across his leg.

He was working the midnight shift Nov. 19, 2011, when he saw John Leighton Jr. speed past him on Samoset Street.

Yule turned around, pulled the West Plymouth man over and conducted a series of field sobriety tests. He ended up charging Leighton with drunken driving, despite pleas for a break because the two men went to high school together.

The trouble started after Yule let Leighton take his cell phone and wallet into a police holding cell. Yule said some supervisors would let prisoners keep their belongings until booking so there would be no question about things going missing.

Coughlin testified that was definitely not the standard.

Despite being handcuffed behind the back, Leighton managed to retrieve his phone and made a call from the cell. Coughlin heard the call and sent Yule into the cell to take the phone.

Yule is seen on a video of the incident doing just that. But as he leaves, Leighton stands and mouths off. Testimony suggests he yells obscenities at Yule.

The officer is seen returning to the cell, extending his arm toward Leighton’s chest and shoving him onto a concrete bench.

Yule is turning to leave the cell again when Coughlin rushes past him and jumps on Leighton.

An expert in the use of force testified at Coughlin’s trial that Yule acted appropriately in “directing” Leighton back onto the bench. The same expert also had no problem with Yule’s behavior as Coughlin took Leighton to the floor.

Yule and Coughlin were both suspended after the video of the altercation became public.

Coughlin was later fired and then indicted. Yule, who was still a probationary officer with no union protection, was forced to resign. “The town advised me it was the best decision,” he told jurors.

Now 26, Yule works at a nutrition center on Cape Cod and is taking classes in exercise science at Bridgewater State University. He testified against Coughlin with a grant of immunity. Under the agreement, nothing he said could be used against him as long as he was truthful.

Yule testified he saw Coughlin hit Leighton three to nine times in the back and head during his limited involvement in the scuffle. But he did not mention the blows in his report that night.

He said he took his cue from his supervisor that night because he had not been involved in an incident like it before and was not sure how to describe it.

Jurors ultimately found Coughlin guilty of using excessive and unreasonable force on Leighton and then lying on his report to cover it up.

Prosecutors would not comment on what, if anything, lies ahead for Yule in the wake of his testimony and Coughlin’s conviction.

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristina Barclay offered a hint in her closing arguments to jurors. Barclay reminded jurors that Yule testified with a grant of immunity. He didn’t need it, she said.